Talking Faith in Medicine
This article was first Submitted to Interfaith Youth Core by adrienne on April 15, 2014
The
woman sitting across from me looked hopeless and lost. She held two
packets of ibuprofen in one hand, a referral to a nearby clinic in the
other. “I am afraid that they won’t help me,” she sobbed in Spanish,
“because I’m Catholic.”
Looking around, it was a little surprising that she would be concerned. Our temporary clinic was an open-air church in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia, and the pastor walked between the tables. At one end of the clinic, Christian missionaries worked tirelessly to bring the Word to the people that my fellow medical students and I were healing physically. My translator, a nondenominational Christian, asked her what she meant, and she wailed, “You are Baptists, why would you help me?”
This was not the first time I’d seen a patient worry about their faith’s impact on their healthcare. At the Judeo-Christian Clinic in Tampa, a woman from the community failed to tell us that she had had an abortion until the doctor confronted her directly with the evidence. Volunteering shifts at the Red Crescent Clinic and the JC Clinic show more diversity to our area than at the general health fairs. Patients are unlikely to bring faith up in their medical visits—and students are not taught to ask about religion during their history taking.
What our professors and attending physicians forget to tell medical students is that faith and health go hand in hand. If you want to know what is contributing to a patient’s good outlook during a difficult period, it often comes down to faith. If a patient is noncompliant in a procedure or medication regime, did you consider that they also practice traditional herbal medicine? Belief in a higher power can be central to a patient’s mental and emotional health, and adverse events can shake that faith. And everyone knows that certain religious groups are restricted in what procedures they can undergo and what diets are available. The best doctors know how to talk to their patients about their emotional health and spiritual beliefs, and to work with this knowledge as a guideline. We can avoid frustration and achieve better results if we only ask a simple question.
As I move forward with my medical training, my goal is to find a way to incorporate what I know about faith and belief into my personal practice. Someday, I’ll be able to tell another patient what I told the Bolivian woman as I referred her for a dangerous stomach condition: “I am not the same kind of Christian as this church, nor the same kind as you. Your faith will not prevent you from getting the help you need, but it will help me to treat you with the consideration and respect that you deserve.”
Looking around, it was a little surprising that she would be concerned. Our temporary clinic was an open-air church in Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia, and the pastor walked between the tables. At one end of the clinic, Christian missionaries worked tirelessly to bring the Word to the people that my fellow medical students and I were healing physically. My translator, a nondenominational Christian, asked her what she meant, and she wailed, “You are Baptists, why would you help me?”
This was not the first time I’d seen a patient worry about their faith’s impact on their healthcare. At the Judeo-Christian Clinic in Tampa, a woman from the community failed to tell us that she had had an abortion until the doctor confronted her directly with the evidence. Volunteering shifts at the Red Crescent Clinic and the JC Clinic show more diversity to our area than at the general health fairs. Patients are unlikely to bring faith up in their medical visits—and students are not taught to ask about religion during their history taking.
What our professors and attending physicians forget to tell medical students is that faith and health go hand in hand. If you want to know what is contributing to a patient’s good outlook during a difficult period, it often comes down to faith. If a patient is noncompliant in a procedure or medication regime, did you consider that they also practice traditional herbal medicine? Belief in a higher power can be central to a patient’s mental and emotional health, and adverse events can shake that faith. And everyone knows that certain religious groups are restricted in what procedures they can undergo and what diets are available. The best doctors know how to talk to their patients about their emotional health and spiritual beliefs, and to work with this knowledge as a guideline. We can avoid frustration and achieve better results if we only ask a simple question.
As I move forward with my medical training, my goal is to find a way to incorporate what I know about faith and belief into my personal practice. Someday, I’ll be able to tell another patient what I told the Bolivian woman as I referred her for a dangerous stomach condition: “I am not the same kind of Christian as this church, nor the same kind as you. Your faith will not prevent you from getting the help you need, but it will help me to treat you with the consideration and respect that you deserve.”
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